grassroots organizing

Learn How to be a Next Level Grassroots Organizer. 

The 2018 election cycle is here! Everyone has a renewed spirit of social justice and resistance.  Lots of activists are looking for ways to get involved in the new wave of change. Are you thinking about becoming a grassroots organizer?

Canvass Training Will Make Your Canvass Count

The 2018 election cycle is officially here! As candidates, by this point you have probably been knocking on doors for weeks and are finally at a place where you are ready to bring in the cavalry, your volunteers! For campaigns, we believe in doors, doors, and more doors.  Those doors translate into more voter contact and more identified targets for GOTV. Hitting doors in the right way is why having a structured and detailed canvass training is vitally important.

VoterCircle: A Grassroots Digital Tool for Friend-to-Friend Campaign Outreach

VoterCircle is a digital tool that elevates friend-to-friend outreach over traditional campaign-to-voter contact. VoterCircle has been featured in our 100 campaign tools lists can change the way any campaign does volunteer recruitment, grassroots fundraising, and GOTV. We talked with founder and CEO Sangeeth Peruri about leveraging personal networks and more.

Cultivate a Grassroots Strategy That Turns Passion Into Action.

Progressives across the country are fired up and ready to resist Trump’s agenda – but does your campaign have a strong grassroots strategy to turn your supporters’ passion into action?

A robust supporter base is crucial to a successful grassroots strategy, but it takes time and effort to build an email list and keep those who opt in engaged. Luckily, tools like ActionSprout are making it easier than ever to accomplish both tasks – below are three ways the tool can help.

Volunteers Are the Heart and Soul of Your Grassroots Organization, Be Sure to Treat Them That Way.

Volunteer recruitment is a crucial component of any strong grassroots organization. Whether these folks are phone banking, canvassing, or staffing events- your volunteer base (or lack thereof) can make (or break) your campaign.

How I Learned Grassroots Campaigns from the Master

Every Fourth of July, I think about my former boss, Congressman Jim Jontz. Jim taught me the importance of grassroots campaigns, real conversations, and knocking on doors. Jim was a congressman from Indiana’s 5th district and a progressive legend. In his first campaign, he won a state representative seat by 4 votes. He went on to win a state senate seat by less than 100 hundred votes and three congressional elections by less than four thousand votes total.

I, along with many future campaign operatives, got my start in politics by doing field work for Jim Jontz in a rural Indiana district. There, I spent six months of my life organizing volunteers and knocking on doors and got a great apprenticeship in how to run grassroots campaigns.

Don't knock door-to-door canvassing

Canvassing is special to me. I love knocking on doors. I think it is still a vastly underrated form of communication. Why do I think canvassing is so special? Because of the connection direct contact makes with targeted voters in a personal and systematic way. With any paid medium you need repetition over a condensed period of time.

With door-to-door contact, especially on political campaigns and issue organizing, one good conversation can be enough to make a difference. Let’s discuss how a good door to door contact can make such a difference.

What Does The Future Of Political Organizing Look Like?

We’ve written a lot about political organizing and tools like canvassing and phone banking in the past. But what does the future of political organizing hold? As a former organizer who likes to stay up to date on all the latest trends, allow me to dust off my crystal ball and give you my take on the future of political organizing.

TCW’s Guide to Campaign Training Costs and Programs

How much should a campaign training cost? Here at The Campaign Workshop, we believe it's important to train campaign staff by providing individuals who want to become campaign operatives the opportunity to go out and gain hands-on experience. If your goal is to work on a campaign, we suggest finding a training program with a strong track record and high attendance. There are a number of great programs throughout the country that we are happy to recommend to you. We’ve listed a few of these noteworthy organizations below.

Stop Grassroots Volunteers From Bailing

 Running a grassroots campaign is hard.  There are always going to be grassroots volunteers who sign up for shifts and do not show up. That’s why when organizing an event, you can generally assume a 50% flake rate (percentage of grassroots volunteers who do not show up for their shift).  More often than not, however, with the right coaxing, you can get a volunteer, who would have otherwise failed, to turn out for their shift. Below are a few suggestions to help you to mitigate your flake rate.